Lloyd Banks Readies Double-Disc V5 Mixtape

Lloyd Banks is back on the mixtape scene with a full two CDs at once — V5 is coming soon.

“V5 — this is my second double-disc this year,” Banks said at his squad’s Forever Young Day in Queens, New York
. “This one I been working on. It’s already done. I’ve been doing a few things on the side. I just did the ’Bandana’ record with Maino and a few other things. I’ve just been working. That’s been put in the cut; I’m hoping to do a couple of videos. I’ve always wanted to do those [with each mixtape project], but I’ll get a call like 6, 7 in the morning saying I gotta go to Africa.

“But V5 on the way — it’s gonna drop any day. Thirty songs. This one is the one, man,” he added. “I been working so hard.”

Banks was pleased to be featured in the recent Hottest MCs fan poll and is looking to see if he’ll make the official list
.

“I’m gonna show you why I was even brought up on the MTV list,” Banks promised. “V5 is gonna speak for itself. Thirty records — it’s going down.”

Also, the only feature on the new mixtape is Tony Yayo.

“I kept it to me. They putting the pressure on me. They wanna see what I’mma do next, so I’m gonna knock them over the head and then gear up for my new album,” Banks said.

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“After I heard his mixtape, I went back to the drawing board,” Yayo offered. “The stuff I’m hearing from these dudes, we hungry. It’s like we ain’t got no money, no cars, no girls. I just keep doing me. Sometimes Banks give me the energy, 50 give me the energy. Young Buck is gone, Banks is gone — they don’t give me no energy. But the Unit, I believe Game said, ’Yo, we broke up the Beatles.’ The Beatles is still here. This is the original format right here.”

The Streets Is Talking: News and Notes From the Underground

Before we peace out, a little bit more from Nas. We recently brought you info from an interview Esco did
with our MTV News fam from the U.K. with our MTV News fam from the U.K. Nas said he had some apprehension about recording a new LP, and some of that nervousness had to do with the recent media scrutiny of his divorce from Kelis
.

“Yeah, a little bit of that,” Nas admitted. “And a little bit of I wanna do so well. I don’t wanna let people down. I wanna put out something that makes sense and I definitely want to put out something that is true to me.”

Nas also hinted at why he missed guest spots on albums such as The Blueprint 3 and Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx … Pt. II.

“I get a lot of flak, ’cause I get a lot of people call me to be on their albums and I’m not really there in their headspace to do it and maybe they think I’m tripping out,” he said. “But it’s not the case — I really have to be in the right headspace. So hopefully I’ll get it done and it’ll come out soon.”